musings part two

< just add tourists!

I had a fun surf last night at semi-clean 3 foot saunton. First time in a 3/2 this year which is always a pleasure. I came to the conclusion that i am lucky enough to own some bitchin' boards at the moment, yesterday's steed was my 5'9 Bro diplock quad, heavily based on Mani Caros template with AK4 fins. Turns like it's on rails and a lovely spring from the fins out of the turn. Good times.

I recently came across easytom's blog detailing his learning to surf adventures and the lessons therein. He's right at the beginning of a wonderful adventure, just at the cusp of full blown obsession. It's good advice for newbies and a fun reminder of when it was all new and exciting for the old salts. It's a long slippery slope from here that can only end with him living in a car with only a dog and a tide table for company

one for tommy...

congratulations, a celebration

Some of my friends got married last week. Congratulations, best wishes, hope you have a wonderful life together to Billy (a fine navigator of the nasal passage on his backhand) and Lucy.

Also massive congrats, best wishes etc to Doug and Tamsin, both fine people and a great couple.  We wish you every happiness.

Doug is a superb singer/songwriter with a somewhat english folk influence (but in a really good way). Visit him here. If you get the chance to catch him live it's well worth it, if you haven't had the chance yet, spend a few minutes watching him in action, he is most definately worthy of your time and attention.

all i've seen is boats...

After an enforced break from the surf i'm ready to be back on it from now!

 I spent the last week relaxing at a friends house near Cadaques in Spain, where Dali spent much of his time. Nice sunny weather, beautiful sunsets, a pool and a distinct lack of anything resembling a rideable wave. I was seriously tempted to take up kiting! Good quality family time so the brownie point bank account is fully restocked.

There's a nice fun size wave forecast for the next few days, unfortunately it's also bank holiday which is going to mean mayhem in the water, my goto spot was already rammed at seven this morning. I'm sure it gets busier every year (cue grumpy old man grumbling about how it was better back in the day etc etc.) Hopefully the tips of a few different logs will get some love over the next couple of days..........

lo-fi low tide

No posts for the next week as i'm off to Spain (the flat coast unfortunately) for a little quality family time. Waves forecast for the weekend though so i feel as if i am taking one for the team!

BLU no.2

Well the wind is offshore....... but it's so strong it's blowing anything resembling a wave back towards New York and it looks likely to stay that way for a few days at least. The weekend was a different story:

Saturday saw the second British Longboard Union contest held at Saunton. Day one went down in typically onshore contest conditions (made me feel even more smug at getting a clean surf out of the wind around the corner) but Saunton turned on some classic 2 foot waves for the semis and final on sunday. While I am not a great fan of progressive longboarding as a concept,  no one can deny there are some good contest longboarders in the UK at the moment.

Ben Skinner won by a narrow margin from local hero Ben Haworth (pictured), ladies favorite Elliot Dudley was third & South Devon ripper Ben Howey was fourth.

One is all you need.......

Royal Surfboards

Just a quick "check out" for my friend Rob, purveyor of fine handcrafted surfboards in the Newcastle area and a super nice guy. Check out the goings on in his neck of the woods here:

http://puraalma.blogspot.com/

Obsessions

I have decided that much of my life is fuelled by a series of evolving obsessions. Put bluntly i am super competitive with myself and hate being bad at things. One of my latest is taking photos, something i have only just scratched the surface of  as far as how to do it well goes. Still i am pretty stoked on some of the stuff i have captured so far!

The Present

I was lucky enough to see Tmoes new film a couple of weeks ago (thank you christiaan) & it is really good. Maybe didn't blow me away quite as much asa the sprout or seedling when i first saw them but it is a super surf film none the less. Too many highlights to mention but the alaiia footage will blow your mind!

Anyway, there is a showing in braunton on may 16th so treat yourself to an evening of fine celluloid surfing dreams!

Rocked my world!

So stuff that has been rocking my world lately: (apart from my amazing family which should go without saying but i'll mention it anyway!)

Mabile fish

Hulls

John Mayer

Vent 414

Holga's & lo fi photography

Logging

Tales from the black van

There's probably lots of other stuff but that is what springs to mind for now.

False Starts

I'm not sure quite why i created this last year, i think i was bored one summers day and wanted to feel creative. I bet no one will read this anyway.

The summer was pretty shocking for waves and weather but the winter was really pretty good with plenty of, albeit cold, clean days.

Now it's starting to warm up i feel it's time to put a bit more effort in and keep this updated, you never know, someone might be interested!